Thursday, February 27, 2014

Not A Canadian Trend.

As anyone who pays much attention to the US entertainment industry knows, they like to remake things. This includes the TV side of the business. Some are highly successful, such as the 21st Century version of Battlestar Galactica. Others last about as long as a carton of milk, such as last fall's Ironside remake with Blair Underwood. And of course some never make it to production at all, like the new version of Murder, She Wrote that was under consideration of late. (That also seems to be the fate of the new, American made revival/reboot of Space: 1999 announced a couple of years back.)

Strangely we don't see the same thing with Canadian TV, which kind of surprises me. You'd think someone would decide to revive hit TV shows of the past, like The Beachcombers. It was the longest running Canadian dramatic series, with 387 episodes, so it would seem a perfect candidate for another attempt. Yet we didn't even see something done for its fortieth anniversary in 2012. Or SCTV, which would allow a new generation of comics to cut their acting chops. The only Canadian series that I can think of that was remade was The Littlest Hobo, which originally aired in the mid '60s, and was revived in the late '70s.

The small size of the Canadian TV industry, and the pressures it faces from being next door to the American industry, doesn't seem to have made it risk adverse enough to go the remake route. Instead Canadian TV producers tend to go for new concepts. Well, as new as you can get with TV, where it seems like everything has been done before.